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Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post reports that the White House is planning "a package of unprecedented economic sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals" who have profited from trade secrets stolen from U.S. companies by hackers sponsored by the Chinese government.
A final call on whether to impose sanctions will likely be made within the next two weeks, according to the Post’s unnamed administration sources.
While the Justice Department announced indictments against members of China’s People’s Liberation Army for the electronic theft of trade secrets last year, the indictments were largely symbolic. The sanctions under discussion would likely include the seizure of economic assets of Chinese companies making use of what officials allege to be data stolen from U.S. companies — and elevate tensions with China further
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as the governments face off over other economic and military issues.
The sanctions will not, apparently, include action over the theft of U.S. government employee data from the Office of Personnel Management. The administration’s concern is greater over economic espionage, including the theft of "everything from nuclear power plant designs to search engine source code," Nakashima reported.
The FBI reported last month that the number of economic espionage cases being investigated had surged by 53 percent in the last year. Most of that growth was attributed to China’s aggressive use of computer and network espionage against U.S. companies.
For more of the Ars Technica story: arstechnica.com
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